The Michigan Daily'Thursday, May 22, 1980-Page 11
Britain drops sanction promise

From AP and UPI
LONDON - Britain's about-face in
deciding to limit its trade sanctions
against Iran split the nine-ndtion Com-
mon Market yesterday and apparently
weakened Western efforts to secure the
release of 53 American hostages.
The State Department said yesterday
Britain is setting a bad example on
economic sanctions against Iran that
could unravel the whole international
effort to free the American hostages -
now in their 201st day of captivity.
DESPITE SOME grumbling about
the British decision to restrict only
future contracts to Iran, and not
existing ones as agreed earlier, the
eight other members of the Common
Market said they will stand by their
pledges of support.
French and West German cabinets
voted to stick to the European
Economic Community (EEC) plan and
impose economic sanctions against
Iran retroactive to Nov. 4, the day the
U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized.
Britain's Conservative government,
which had been among the strongest
supporters of a tough sanctions
package, was forced in the end to do
even less than the other allies and drop
the provision for retroactivity when its
parliament made it clear it would not
support it.
THERE WERE some predictions
that others among America's European
allies would be tempted to follow suit

and curtail their trade losses, but there
were no other backsliders yesterday.
Until this week, Britain had been the
European champion of President Car-
ter's moves against Iran. British of-
ficials have consistently condemned
Iran for holding the hostages.
State Department papers show
however, that British exports to Iran
have sharply increased while the
hostages are being held, jumping from
$34 million in December to $86 million
in February - the latest figures
available.
An official attributed the lack of
allied support on Iran to two factors:
-"We have exhorted them on so
many different issues, including the
Olympics and Iran, that we have
debased the currency of our language.
They don't line up and salute the way
they used to."
-"There is a general disenchan-
tment and dislike of the Carter ad-
ministration's foreign policy."
MEANWHILE, THE leader of the
hardline majority in Iran's new
parliament said yesterday the
legislators have a lot of routine work to
dispose of and may not get around to
debating the fate of the 53 American
hostages for several weeks after they
convene May 28.
Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti,
leader of the Islamic Republican Party,
said United States should therefore be
"patient" and not resort to "confron-

tation and stubbornness" in the 200-
day-old crisis.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who
could order the release of the hostages,
has given parliament the task of
deciding their fate.
The parliament is to convene May 28
but Beheshti, whose party controls a
majority of its 270 seats, cautioned
against a speedy resolution of crisis af-
ter that. He said routine governmental

affairs - the election of a speaker of
the house, the approval of a premier
and the endorsement of a council of
ministers - would be the parliament's
first order of business and that the
hostage question may not be taken up
for several weeks.
"Therefore, it is in their interest that
they (the United States) remain patient
till the Majlis (parliament) decides
about the hostages," Beheshti said.

Libyan exiles killed
in Athens, Rome

ROME (AP) - Killers of Libyan
exiles in Europe claimed their seventh
and eighth victims in two months,
strangling and stabbing the Libyan-
born owner of a lumber trading com-
pany here Tuesday night and killing a
young furniture factory worker in
Athens yesterday.
The killers here left a note signed by
the "Libyan Revolutionary Committees
in Rome," warning that "the enemies
of the people will be reached wherever
they are," authorities said.

POLICE IN Athens said they had no
immediate indication that the death of
Abu Bakr Abdel-Rahman, 23, of Tripoli,
Libya was related to the others. Neigh-
bors of the dead man, however, said he
was a known critic of Col. Moammar
Khadafy, the autocratic Libyan ruler.
Police said they had information that
Abdel-Rahman was an officer of the
Libyan police, but declined to
elaborate.
The coroner who examined the body
said Abdel-Rahman was almost
decapitated with a large knife between
24 and 48 hours prior to the discovery of
his body.
The body of Mohamed Fouad Buoh-
jar, 55, was left under his bed at a pen-
sion in Rome. His killer used a nylon
cord to choke him and them stabbed the
body repeatedly in the chest and
stomach, investigators said.
Buohjar was the fourth Libyan mur-
dered in Rome. Gunmen have killed
two Libyan exiles in London and one in
Bonn, West Germany, since March 21.
European sources familiar with
Libyan affairs believe the wave of
killings is part of a new crackdown by
the Khadafv regime to crush opposition.

Qatar 8th nation to lift oil prices

By United PressInternational
Qatar raised its crude oil prices by
$2 a barrel yesterday and became the
eighth OPEC nation to join the new
round of leapfrogging triggered by
Saudi Arabia's decision last week to lift
its prices.
Analysts believe Saudi Arabia,
OPEC's most influential moderate and
America's largest oil supplier, in-
creased its crude prices by $2 a barrel
in an attempt to restore pricing unity to
the 13-nation cartel, which deadlocked
on a single world oil price last Decem-
ber.
BUT THE SAUDI move, aimed at
narrowing the gap between the
kingdom's cheaper crude and the
higher-priced oil produced by other
OPEC nations, backfired as eight
members followed the Saudi lead.
OPEC prices now average just under
$32 a barrel, ranging from $28 a barrel
-for Saudi Arabia's basic crude to $38.21

a barrel for Algerian oil.
The latest series of increases have
rasised OPEC prices by about $2 a
barrel, which will cost Americans
roughly 3 cents more a gallon for
gasoline and home-heating oil.
QATAR, A SMALL OPEC producer
at 489,000 barrels a day, increased its
oil prices by $2 a barrel, retroactive to
May 1, the Qatari News Agency repor-
ted. The action pushed its basic crude to
$31.23 a barrel.
The Iraqi news agency yesterday
confirmed earlier reports it had raised
its oil prices by $2 to $29.96 a barrel,
also retroactive to May 1.
Venezuela, America's seventh
largest oil supplier, announced late
Tuesday it was lifting its crude prices
by $1 to $3.50 a barrel, effective May 26.
Venezuela's basic Ti Juana crude will
rise by $2.50 to $29.28 a barrel.
EARLIER THIS WEEK Libya, In-
donesia, Kuwait, and the United Arab

Emirates upped prices by $2 a barrel.
Algeria slapped a $1-a-barrel increase
on its oil.
In Beirut, oil industry sources predic-
ted Saudi Arabia probably would raise
its prices by another $2 to $3 a barrel
when the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries holda its pricing
summit in Algiers June 9.
The sources said the Saudis believe
OPEC's price ceiling cannot move
much higher and by raising its prices
another notch, the kingdom can finally
eliminate the price gap that has
prevented the cartel fFom achieving
price unity for the past year.

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